Looking for daycares

The most stressful part of this move was finding Lara a daycare. I started looking casually when we first put our house on the market. Everywhere I went, I got the same "we are full and waiting list is long" story. Not knowing where we would live and when we would move only made things more difficult.

I knew there was a possibility that I would not find somewhere satisfactory in time, and that meant I would have to take an extended holiday from work. But secretely I thought there had to be some movements in one of the daycares and just hoped I would be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when a vacancy came up.

I called the daycare I like the most and closest to where we would be living every week to enquire the possibility of getting a place. It was a very stressful time. Luck must be on my side and my persistent calling somehow paid off. Three days before our move, I was told there is one day available for Lara and managed to get another day (total of 2 days) on the second week.

Because there seemed to be impossible to get into daycares, I also widened my search to include family daycares (people looking after up to 5 kids at their own homes) and daycares further away. I went and visited a few places, some were available but none to my satisfation. During this process, I happened to talk to a lady running her own family daycare. She sounded really nice over the phone and cleared some of my reservations. A visit with Lara made me decide to try her one day a week.

Lara loves the family daycare environment and never cried once when I left. With daycare, Lara only cried a couple of times. The good news is Lara seems to be happy with both places. She knows the names of some of her carers and friends, she lingers on and never wants to rush home with me. In fact, most days I have a real job dragging her home after work!

Both places tell me how good Lara is and how easy it is to look after her. They both offered me all the days I want for next year. I could not have planned a better outcome, I am very grateful for that.